In general, utility companies, for the most part, have eliminated the practice of manually collecting water, gas and electricity meter readings. Instead, utility usage sensors and a small electronics package including a low-power radio transmitter, which is battery powered in the case of water and gas meters, is coupled to the meter for sending the meter reading wirelessly to a nearby meter reading collector. In some instances, collecting the meter readings simply involves driving a vehicle equipped with a combined radio triggering device and electronic memory storage for the meter readings past a meter, such as a water or gas meter, so that the radio triggering device causes the meter transmitter to “burst” the meter reading out in the form of a wireless transmission. This transmission is picked up by the receiver and stored in memory for later retrieval. Thus, a meter reader simply drives past a meter to obtain the reading. In other implementations, a meter reader is required to walk up to the meter and touch it with a wand or the like, which incorporates a radio triggering device and memory storage for the meter readings, to likewise obtain the meter readings.
In addition to these so-called “automatic” meter reading systems, prepaid electrical power systems are becoming increasingly common as cost and demand of electricity continues to increase. In instances of individuals who have marginal ability to pay and/or may have dubious credit history, situations where an electrical power technician is sent to disconnect electrical power from a residence of such an individual may become volatile. There have been instances where utility workers have been attacked, and even killed, in confrontations with electrical power users over disconnection of electrical service. Further, notification laws have been passed in areas where disconnection of electrical power may result in direct harm to individuals due to severe inclement conditions, such as from cold weather. In these areas, disconnection of electrical power may not be done without prior notification, which may be a week or more. During that notification period, the individual may continue to use electrical power that may never be paid for. Other problems related to connecting/disconnecting electrical power are that a trained technician must be sent to the site to perform the electrical connection or disconnection of service.
Due to these problems, limited prepaid systems have been implemented. In one such system devised by COMVERGE™, an adapter is plugged into the electrical meter base, with the electrical meter plugged into the adapter. A 200 amp switch coupled to a VHF radio receiver makes or breaks electrical connection between the meter and the user responsive to an ON/OFF VHF signal on a channel reserved for utilities communications (139-174 Mhz). As such, all this system is capable of doing is performing connections and disconnects of electrical power responsive to the VHF signal from the electrical utilities office. In this application, there may be a collection point every square mile or so, depending on topography where houses and collection points are situated.
In addition to the foregoing, other problems are present in management of electrical utilities. For instance, with respect to three phase power, which is common in industrial applications, it is not particularly uncommon for one phase to lose power. When this happens, unprotected equipment, such as motors, may be destroyed.
Utility companies typically attempt to balance loading on three phase circuits so that generators are not overly strained and subject to damage. Here, power factor of each of the three phases is monitored, and if it becomes unbalanced, then capacitor banks consisting of large capacitors are coupled between respective phase lines and a neutral line to connect a large amount of capacitance to the power lines.
In other instances, utility companies use reclosers, which are designed to burn off small limbs, animals such as squirrels and other things that may short out a power line. Here, a recloser functions initially as a circuit breaker to remove power from a shorted power line, but after a brief delay, such as 2 seconds or so, will typically make three attempts to reapply power to the line in order to burn off the object shorting the line. After the third attempt, if the short is still present, the recloser will remain open, requiring utility service personnel to remove the object and possibly repair the line. Where reclosers are operating more frequently than normal, such as in a neighborhood, it may indicate to the utility company that trees in the neighborhood are in need of trimming. In addition, where a recloser is unable to burn off the short, a utility company currently has no way of knowing that power downstream of that recloser is out until people begin to call the utility company to complain.
In related situations, a recloser may be put on a service line to a neighborhood of a hundred or more residences, while every 10 houses or so in the neighborhood may be protected by a fuse in the power line. Here, the recloser may be applying power to the line but a fuse may have blown. Again, the utility company has no way of knowing the fuse is blown until people call to complain that their electrical power is out.
In view of the foregoing, Applicant proposes an integrated system wherein, in a basic embodiment, electrical power connect/disconnect capability is integrated with automatic meter reading wherein the meter reading and connect/disconnect commands are conveyed over control channels of the cellular network and the Internet between the power user and a central location. In an enhancement of the basic embodiment, a prepaid electrical power system is disclosed that automatically provides notification to the user of an impending termination of electrical power. In another embodiment, water, gas and electric meter readings are transmitted by a low-power transmitter to a collection point, which then transmits the readings to a central location over the control channels of the cellular network and the Internet. Any of Applicant's electrical power systems may be configured to transmit data related to power outages so that a utility company may determine in real time exactly where a power outage has occurred. In addition, Applicant proposes a data collection system wherein a data center receives all the data from a diverse variety of sources, such as those described above, and from other sources such as surveillance systems, railroad switch heater systems and others. The data center integrates data from the various sources and allows customer users to access their respective data.